Metalworking fluid is used to cool machining equipment such as computer numerical control (“CNC”) machining equipment. The metalworking fluid is required to cool tooling and metal parts of the machining equipment, which are susceptible to increased temperatures during a machining process. Increased temperatures will wear the parts and decrease the overall efficiency of the machining equipment. The metalworking fluid is typically water soluble and may contain an extreme pressure lubricant. The metalworking fluid may be stored in a sump or tank located under the machining equipment. In use, the metalworking fluid will flow down and be collected in the sump for recirculation through the machining equipment. The sump will also collect other fluids such as way oil, air set oil and other types of petroleum based fluids known as “tramp oil.” The tramp oil contaminates the metalworking fluid, which is then recirculated through the machining equipment. The contaminated metalworking fluid reduces the life of the metalworking fluid and machining equipment.
There have been attempts to address the contaminated metalworking fluid such as a disk skimmer that uses a slender plastic wheel that dips down into the sump. As the wheel rotates back up out of the sump, a wiper mechanism removes the tramp oil that happens to adhere to the plastic wheel. A shortcoming of the device is that only a limited volume of metalworking fluid is processed as determined by the surface area of the wheel. This is a shortcoming of a similar skimming type system that uses a belt or tube that dips down into the metalworking fluid instead of a wheel.
Another example of the prior art is a tramp oil separator device. The contaminated metalworking fluid is extracted from the machining equipment sump and pumped into a vessel that allows the tramp oil to float to the top of the vessel where it is siphoned off. However, the remaining metalworking fluid is not completely removed of tramp oil through the separation process and is a relatively slow processing method.
It is, therefore, to the effective resolution of the aforementioned problems and shortcomings of the prior art that the present invention is directed.